Five days, four days, three days: the gap between the individual games in these English weeks is getting smaller and smaller. Borussia Dortmund are already in action again on Wednesday (kick-off at 18:00 CET) when TSG Hoffenheim make the trip to SIGNAL IDUNA PARK in the second round of the DFB-Pokal. A home streak is up against an away run…

Direct cup clashes: The two clubs are meeting in this competition for the third time and for the third time the clash is taking place at the Strobelallee. BVB beat the then second-tier team 3-1 at the quarter-final stage of the 2007/08 season thanks to goals from Giovanni Federico, Tinga and Mladen Petric (and went on to reach the final). The tie in the 2014/15 campaign went into extra-time following goals from Neven Subotic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang plus Kevin Volland and Roberto Firmino, whose goals temporarily made it 2-1. Sebastian Kehl fired the Black & Yellows into the semi-final with his goal in the 107th minute. BVB reached the final that season too.

Cup history: Borussia Dortmund have reached the final 10 times in total and won the DFB-Pokal on five occasions (1965, 1989, 2012, 2017, 2021). Their last elimination in the second round came on 27 October 2010, when they lost 4-2 on penalties to Kickers Offenbach. TSG Hoffenheim have been consistently involved in the DFB-Pokal since 2007. The Kraichgau outfit have reached the quarter-final six times (most recently against BVB in 2014/15). In the last eight years, they have been knocked out in the second round five times and the last 16 three times.

Head-to-head record: Borussia Dortmund and TSG Hoffenheim are meeting in a competitive match for the 34th time. BVB have won both cup clashes (see above); Borussia have twice as many wins (14) as TSG (seven) in the Bundesliga – in addition, there have been 10 draws – but in terms of goal difference their noses are only narrowly in front (49-44). The Black & Yellows have emerged victorious in each of the last five meetings (3-1, 1-0, 1-0, 3-2, 3-2). The last defeat BVB suffered was by a 4-0 scoreline on home turf on Matchday 34 of the 2019/20 season; it was also the biggest margin of defeat for a team in this fixture.

Home/away: Including last season, the Black & Yellows are unbeaten in 25 home games in all competitions. This run began with a 1-0 victory over Hoffenheim on 2 September 2022. Hoffenheim are the only Bundesliga club to start the season with five away wins (3-2 in Heidenheim, 3-1 in Köln, 2-0 at Union Berlin, 3-2 in Bremen, 3-2 in Stuttgart) and they top the away table with 15 points. Five away victories on the trot is a club record. Only FC Bayern Munich in 2012/13 and Borussia Dortmund in 2010/11 have won the first five away games of a Bundesliga season. BVB actually won their first eight games on the road that year (a record Bundesliga start). If you add the first-round tie against VfB Lübeck in the DFB-Pokal (4-1), it is actually six away wins in a row across all competitions for TSG; with one exception (2-0 in Berlin), they have scored at least three goals on each occasion.
Compiled by Boris Rupert